


Vrepit Sa

by QuicheKolgate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Minor Allura/Lotor, Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, Slav is Annoying, The Paladins are Depressed, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-10-06 09:51:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10331969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuicheKolgate/pseuds/QuicheKolgate
Summary: Shiro is gone, the rest of the Paladins are distressed, including Allura and Coran, and now they have a new threat- but, is it really? Lotor has been summoned by Haggar, unbeknownst to the Paladins of Voltron. How will his arrival effect the team?(The title is dumb I'm sorry but I actually don't know how to title this damn thing.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An idea I've been sitting on, revolving around the whole Lotor thing, whether he'd be a good guy, or a bad guy, or what have you. This is my take on what could happen. Rated Teen and up for adult language not suited for the little kiddies.

  It had been days since Shiro's disappearance, days since anyone had gotten any proper sleep. Allura had them go back to every previously visited planet trying to find him, but they had no luck. Currently, Allura had all the Paladins gathered in the main control room, while she paced back and forth, rambling about where they could possibly search next. Keith looked around at the others.

  Coran was leaned up against a wall, dozing off. Hunk yawned and sank down further in his seat, eyes drooping shut. Pidge had her head  propped on her hand, eyes shut- maybe she fell asleep already? And Lance was leaned forward, head in his hands, and yawning every few ticks, dark circles becoming noticeable under his tired eyes.

  Allura was oblivious to all of this, despite looking absolutely exhausted herself. It was then Keith spoke up, stirring everyone from their half asleep states. "Princess, don't you think it would be better to do this once everyone has gotten some sleep?" Allura stopped her pacing and turned to look at Keith. "What? What do you mean? Shiro is  _missing_ , Keith! We have no time for rest when-"

  Keith stood, shoulders back, and approached the Princess. He could feel everyone's eyes on them, looking back and forth between them like a tennis ball match. "Princess, I understand you're worried, and scared, and want to find Shiro as soon as possible, I get it. We all are. We all want to find him just as much as you do, but we  _need sleep_. We're no good to Shiro, where ever he is, if we're falling over ourselves, barely awake or coherent."

  Allura held his eye contact, looking as if she wanted to argue, but let her gaze fall to her feet. "Yes, I-I suppose you're right," She sighed and ran her hands over her face, brushing her hair back. "I'm sorry to have kept you all deprived of sleep like this. It's actually quite ridiculous, thinking that by keeping you all up, it would help at all." She laughed, and Keith could see the tears coming. He lay a gentle hand on her shoulder.

  "Get some sleep, Princess. We'll all do better in the morning, once we've rested." Allura nodded and smiled up at him, the look in her eyes thankful. "You'll think it's just the sleep deprivation talking, but even though Shiro isn't here, it still feels like he is, with you here. I can see so much of him in you." With that, she walked past Keith and to the opening doors. "I expect you all to be in here bright and early tomorrow," the Princess announced as she exited the main control room. Coran followed behind, first patting Keith on the shoulder and giving him a small smile and a, "Thank you," before walking through the doors and letting them close behind him.

  Keith just stood there, letting Allura's words sink in.  _"...even though Shiro isn't here, it still feels like he is, with you here. I can see so much of him in you."_ He thought back to when Shiro had told him, if he didn't make it, he wanted Keith to lead Voltron. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He looked around, not having realized that the others had gotten up, and were looking at him with concern deeply etched into their expressions. "Keith, man, are you okay?" Hunk asked.

  He stood straight and rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh, yeah, just- I'm just tired, ya know. Um, I'm gonna go, to bed.. You guys should, too. Like Allura said. Bright and early she wants us back here." As Keith turned to walk away, he heard Lance yawn loudly and stretch. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Mullet Man. I'm gonna hit the sack, too. I've totally been missing out on my beauty sleep."

  "You totally need it, too," Pidge snorted. "Hey!" Lance shouted, and Pidge laughed, which made Hunk laugh as well. Keith smiled to himself, hearing them act more like themselves, despite the given circumstances.

  "Hunk! Not cool! You're supposed to back me up, not laugh with her!" Keith could almost  _hear_ Lance's pout as he walked away, letting the doors shut behind him.

  The castle's lights emitted a dim, cool blue glow down the hallways, casting Keith's shadow far in front of him. He had never been one who was necessarily scared of the dark, but his nerves were on edge, ears searching to pick up any sounds besides his own shallow breathing, or his own footsteps. He had the worst feeling that he was being followed to his room. Trying to shake the feeling, he picked up his pace and took a detour. When the feeling didn't let up, Keith's nerves got the better of him. He unsheathed his knife and ran the rest of the way to his room, almost running smack into his door, but narrowly missing collision as it quickly slid open. He slammed his back against the door once it slid shut, breathing heavy.

  After a moment of standing and catching his breath, Keith slid to the floor and let out a laugh, laughing at himself for being so paranoid.

  Nothing had been following him except his own imagination. Keith stood and walked into his bathroom, wanting to take a quick shower before going to bed.

\-----------------------------------------------------

  Back in the main control room, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance were just leaving, still bickering and laughing. Out of the corner of his eye, deep in the dark space, Lance could have sworn he saw... "Hey, guys, was that a Galra ship that just went by?"

  Hunk looked over at him, panicked. "A-A Galra ship? Where??" Pidge looked out the windows and shook her head. "There's no Galra ship, Hunk. Just Lance's imagination."

  Lance gasped and glared at Pidge. "It wasn't my imagination! I really saw something out there!"

  "Exactly.  _Something_. It could have been literally anything. We're out in deep space, surrounded by planets and stars, but the last possible thing that could pass by us is a Galra ship, Lance." Pidge looked up at him. "It's probably just nerves that have you seeing things. We're all on edge, we just need sleep.

  Lance huffed. "Yeah, I guess so. I was so  _sure_ though, but you're probably right."

  "Of course I am." Pidge grinned up at Lance. "Anyways, I'll see you in the morning, or, whatever the equivalent is when you're in space." Lance nodded and threw a small wave her and Hunk's way as they parted ways to go to their respective rooms.

  Not that he would admit it out loud, but as he walked down the dimly lit corridor, Lance was starting to wish he had left with Keith, to avoid having to walk alone, in a mostly empty castle, when he and Keith were the only two to have rooms on the one side of the ship.

 He shivered as he remembered the time that the ship had been 'haunted', and he had almost been sucked out into space. Keith had luckily come to his rescue, though. Would he do it a second time?

  He shook his head. It was nothing to worry about now. As he approached his room, passing by Keith's, he could hear the shower running.  _Keith, shower._ Lance felt himself blush at the thoughts, but why? He sighed and pushed the thoughts far away, to the back of his mind, and entered his room. He considered for a moment to take a shower himself, but opted to just applying a face mask and calling it a night.

  As he lay in bed, waiting for sleep to come, he listened to the spray of the shower head in the room adjacent to him, and imagined it was the sound of rain. Earth rain, cool against his face, the sweet smell of the soil rising up from the ground, and he fell asleep with these thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

  The next morning, the paladins woke to an alarm blaring. They all rushed to get their gear and weapons and get to the main control room. Keith arrived first, blade unsheathed and ready for a fight. Lance stumbled in next, trying to fix his helmet, with Pidge and Hunk close behind, all on high alert.

  "What's going on, Princess?" Hunk gasped out, trying to catch his breath.

  Allura turned her attention to the four, fury burning in her eyes. "We have an intruder on board our ship. A  _Galra_ intruder." Keith frowned. "Are we near a base-?" Allura shook her head. "They aren't of The Blade of Marmora. Their ship is one of Zarkon's."

  Lance frowned, "How is their ship on board?" Allura sighed and rubbed her temples. "It was circling us last night, but for some reason the sensors didn't pick it up-"

  "And just now, we had spotted it hovering near by, a small little thing, really, only fit for one Galra, so we brought it in for encapturement." Coran added. Allura nodded in agreement. "Yes, but unfortunately, whoever was in the ship was too quick for us, so once we had them in the enclosed hangar-"

  "They escaped." Keith interrupted. "But how??"

  "Most likely, through the vents," Pidge mumbled, more to herself than anyone else, but Coran nodded. "Precisely! However, we um, have lost track of exactly where they have gone. Some systems are quite damaged and I'm still trying to fix them up-"

  "Hold up, hold up." Hunk held up his hands. "There's a Galran soldier of Zarkon in the castle ship, and you  _lost him_?"

  Allura huffed an annoyed sigh. "That's why we activated the alarms, to get you all down here."

  Keith looked to the other paladins. "Lance, Hunk, let's spread out and find this intruder. Pidge, stay here and try to help Coran out with the damaged systems." Pidge and Hunk nodded, but Lance glared.

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up! Since when are you the leader??" Lance reached out and jabbed a finger into Keith's chest. Keith frowned, "I'm not the leader, Lance, I'm just trying to help-"

  "Yeah well don't go getting ahead of yourself with trying to boss us around." Lance held his glare for a tick before turning and running off down one of the long corridors, calling over his shoulder, "C'mon, Hunk! We have an intruder to find!"

  Hunk looked back at Keith, empathy in his eyes, but followed after Lance anyways. "Wait up, Lance!"

  Keith sighed and ran a shaking hand through his hair.  _Was that the impression he was giving off? That he was trying to be the leader? But he didn't want to-_

 "-Keith," Allura snapped him out of his thoughts. "Keith are you okay?"

  Keith put on a grim poker face, nodding curtly. "M'fine, Princess. Don't worry. We'll bring the intruder to you soon enough." With that he ran off down the adjacent corridor to the one Lance and Hunk went down.

\---------------------------------

  After leaving the main control room, Lance and Hunk's pace slowed down to a steady walk.

  There was a moment of silence as they caught their breaths, before Hunk spoke up. "What's your deal with Keith, dude?" He looked over at Lance, who kept looking straight ahead. "I mean, I get you have that whole 'rivalry' thing going on, but I mean, we're all pretty stressed and he's just trying to help. I'm sure the last thing he wants to do is take Shiro's place as leader-"

  Lance held up his free hand to stop Hunk from saying more. "It just, it feels like he's always one-upping me, ya know? Like now Shiro's gone and he's all on Allura and sweet talking her and trying to take charge of the team,"

  "Someone has to take charge of the team, right?? We can't be completely leaderless. And I'm pretty sure he hasn't sweet talked Allura, he just convinced her to let us get some sleep, which I'm personally grateful for, because I was so sure we were all just gonna let her work us till we passed out."

  Lance sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah. I guess so, I dunno."

  Just then, Hunk stopped walking. "Hey, I think I hear something- I'm gonna head this way, okay? You keep going straight." Lance frowned, "Oh. okay. Yell if you need backup." Hunk nodded once and branched off from Lance, leaving the blue paladin to continue his tread down the corridor by himself.

  He had lost track of how much time had passed, taking random turns down different hallways, straining to hear any out of place sound. Lance was about to find his way back to the main control room, when he saw, from the corner of his eye, a dark figure shift ever so slightly.

  Lance froze.

  Slowly, he turned his body to face where he had seen the dark figure move.

  Without warning, the figure up and bolted past Lance, spinning him and leaving him to land on his ass. "Hey!!" Lance shouted after it, but it payed no attention.

  As quick as he could, Lance was back on his feet and running after it, bayard in hand, "Hey, stop!!" _Genius, Lance, the Galran intruder who works for Zarkon is totally gonna stop because you told them to._

Lance contemplated calling for backup from Hunk or Keith, but decided not to. If he could catch the intruder on his own, it would be a total win for him, something he could definitely rub in Keith's face. As Lance was thinking about the small possible victory, he didn't realize that the corridor had come to a dead end, and the intruder was coming to a halt, and ended up barreling right into them, knocking both them and Lance to the ground.

  Luckily for Lance, he had landed in such a way that made it impossible for the Galran soldier to escape from under him. Lance regained his thoughts and better positioned himself over the soldier, his bayard to their chest. "Gotcha." Lance grinned harshly. "Now let's see the face of our intruder."


	3. Chapter 3

  "Now let's see the face of our intruder." Lance, keeping his bayard positioned at their chest, readied to pull off the mask-

  There was shouting and footsteps coming from behind Lance- Hunk and Keith catching up to him.

  "Lance! You got him!" Hunk laughed, reaching him first and patting his back. "Awesome job!" Lance grinned up at Hunk and let out a chuckle. "Of course I got him, dude. Like I was gonna let Keith get all the glory of capturing-"

  "Great job, Lance." Keith approached them and lay a hand on his shoulder for a moment, frowning down at the Galra still beneath Lance. "Let's bring him to Allura." Lance's face warmed slightly and he shrugged off Keith's hand. "Um. Thanks, man."

  Lance stood as Keith and Hunk grabbed the Galra soldier by the arms and hoisted him up. "Did you say- Did you say Allura? As in Princess Allura of Altea?" Lance glared at him, "What do you know about her??"

  The soldier laughed, "Well quite a bit, her and I go pretty far back-"

  "Save the storytelling for Allura herself." Keith interrupted, pulling him along with Hunk in tow, and Lance following behind.

  The walk back was quiet, and once they entered through the doors, Allura quickly approached them. "Hunk, Keith! You captured him!" Lance cleared his throat and stepped to the side, from behind Hunk. "Actually, Princess-"

  "Come now, let's find out who this mystery Galra is." Allura helped to secure the soldier in hand and ankle cuffs before Hunk and Keith released them into a kneeling position. "He claims to know you, Princess." Keith spoke.

  "Yes, well, if he's one of Zarkon's I imagine he would know of me. Now let us see," The Princess removed the Galran soldier's helmet, and almost immediately dropped it, bringing up a hand to cover her gaping mouth. "Lotor??"

  Lotor looked up at the Princess from where he kneeled, a faint smile on his lips. "Hello, Allura." 

  "Whoa, wait, so you actually know each other?" Hunk questioned, looking between the two. Fury was burning in Allura's eyes. Instead of answering Hunk, she raised the helmet in her hands above her head, ready to bring it down across Lotor's head. "You-!"

  Lance was quick to intervene, grabbing the helmet from Allura's grasp. "Hey, whoa, Princess! Wait!" Allura turned on Lance, fire in her eyes. "Lance! Do not stop me! You don't know how foul of a creature he is-"

  "Was."

  Allura turned her attention back to Lotor, who hadn't flinched or made to move away, seemingly not afraid of the Princess. "What?!"

  "I  _was_ terrible, many thousand years ago, and, although I can't immediately make up for all the trouble I've caused you, you must believe me, Allura, that I am so sorry. I was horrible to you, as well as others. I realize now, I was so heavily influenced back then by my father, and other negative influences. I had thought then I was in the right, but I was so very much in the wrong."

  Allura held her glare. "Do you think that coming to me now,  _after so long. After my home world has been destroyed by your father and his men-!"_

"His father?!" The other paladins spoke simultaneously, Allura ignored them. "Do you know what kind of pain you caused me?? What tears were because of you?! You- quiznacking- Ugh!" She turned back on Lance, who stood in stunned silence, still holding Allura's initial weapon, the helmet. "Lance! Give me back the helmet!!" Lance quickly backed up, looking around to the others who still stood motionless, as shocked as he was at the confrontation. "I don't think that's a good idea-"

  "Give it back to me now!" She took a step forward to which Lance scrambled further back, nearly tripping over his own feet. "Beating him to death isn't going to help anything! W-We still don't know why he came all the way out here- Just to apologize for being a dick ten thousand plus years ago??" He now stood behind Coran and Pidge at the control panel, as Allura took more steps towards him.

  "He's right, Allura, maybe we should listen to his whole story?" Keith spoke up from his place beside Lotor, not making any move to help Lance against the furious Altean.

  "You don't know him like I do! He is worth not a tick of our time!" Allura turned to face Keith. "He is less than the lesser of anything in this entire universe! Why the hell should I listen to what he has to say?!"

  "I didn't just come to apologize." Lotor finally spoke again, turning all attention back to him. "That wasn't my main intent, although that doesn't lessen the meaning of my words. I really truly am sorry, and would be willing to do whatever it takes to get you to forgive me. But before that, you must know that coming to you wasn't my sole idea- I had no clue that you were still alive after all these years."

  "Then why  _are_ you here?" Allura questioned, stepping closer to him.

  "I was summoned- Summoned by Haggar, and sent to find you, in replace of my father, King Zarkon."

  Silence struck through the castle as the statement sunk in. No one spoke for a tick or so, and so Lotor began again, "I'm supposed to defeat and capture Voltron, and bring the lions back to Haggar. Those were my orders- But I don't want to fight! I want to make peace. Please believe me, that's why I came on my own. You can search me and my ship if you like, I have nothing on me that would allow me to be tracked- though I can't say much for what they'd be able to do to find me anyways- But I swear to you I've come as an ally to Voltron, not an enemy."

  There was more silence following the proclamation, almost every one's attention turned to Allura, who seemed deep in thought. Lance still stood a safe distance from her, in case she decided to go for the bash-over-Lotor's-head-to-death-with-his-own-helmet option, Hunk and Keith kept their bayards in hand, ready for whatever was decided.

  Instead, Pidge spoke first. "It seems to make since, actually." Allura looked up and over at Pidge, "What? You believe what he says?"

  Pidge pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "Now, I don't have the personal history with him, so I'm looking at this from the most logical perspective I can. If you think about it, it's pretty reasonable. He could have attacked last night, especially with the defenses and detector systems down, or he could have when we were mostly split up. For the most part he  _let_ himself be captured, and didn't put up much of a fight, and he did come alone. We can search him and his ship for any device that can be detectable by Haggar or any other Galran. Plus, we can just keep him under supervision until you completely trust him."

  Coran spoke next, "Now, Princess, I, more than anyone, can understand your feelings about this, but Number Five here really does seem to have this figured out pretty well-" Pidge glared up at Coran for the use of 'Number Five' instead of her name, but Coran continued.

  "What other intentions could he have, especially since he's already told us the orders he's been given, as well as giving us permission to search his ship." Allura sighs and pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a moment to think more over the situation. "Fine." she finally said.

  "We'll keep him under surveillance as he and his ship is searched- But he will stay cuffed, to minimize possibility of escape, and keep him far from me for now, I don't want to look at him."

  Lotor looked up at the Princess, his face glowing with gratitude. "Thank you, Allura, really-"

  " _Do not speak to me._  You are  _not_ forgiven by me for anything, and don't expect to be. This mercy isn't even from the good of my heart, but just logical." Allura spoke, her voice icy cold, and without sparing Lotor even a glance. "Lance," she turned to Lance, who backed up a step, holding the helmet behind his back. "Take him to an imprisonment cell. Coran can show you where they're located in the castle." She turned next to face first Pidge, then Keith and Hunk. "You three, come with me to inspect his ship, to see what we can find."

 All four Paladins nodded in response to her orders. Keith and Hunk hefted Lotor up to a standing position, and passed him on to Lance and Coran, Hunk patting Lance on the shoulder along with a, "Have fun, man," and a smile.

 Pidge crossed the room to where Allura waited at the doors, along with the red and yellow paladins, and together the four left to the hangars.

_\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

 As they made their way to the cells, deep in the castle, it was quiet, aside from Coran and Lance's footsteps, and Lotor's shuffling.

 "I never would have thought we would really need to use this part of the castle, not after so long," Coran said, looking around at the new territory. "Of course, it isn't that it was  _never_ used, but it's been so long. Even before we had to go into the cryo-pods, we rarely had to actually take prisoners for anything." Lance was also looking around, amazed. "This place just seems to get bigger every, uh, quintent? I think."

  Coran laughed. "Yes! That's correct, a rough equivalent to an Earth day." Lance smiled to himself for having remembered correctly. "But yeah, this is insane, I had no idea it was here."

  "Just how far down are you going to take me?" Lotor spoke up, looking between the two. Lance tightened his grip on the prince's arm, giving him a bitter look. "As far as we feel like. I don't know exactly what you did,but if it was bad enough to make the Princess  _that_ upset, ten thousand plus years later? You're gonna go where she would have to make a real effort to look at your ugly mug."

  Coran nodded in agreement, and Lotor frowned. "Now that was a bit unnecessary. I can admit that I deeply wronged her so long ago, but I also know for a fact that I'm not ugly." Lance refrained from looking at him as he said, "It's an expression, dude. Point is, the Princess doesn't want anything to do with you right now, so a cell deep in the castle is where you're gonna stay." They came to a stop at one of the cells, and Coran stepped up to unlock the door.

  As the semi-transparent door slid open, Lance pushed Lotor inside. Coran entered the lock key, and faced Lance. "Do you mind staying here with him for just a tick while I go check some of the security systems? I can only do so much from here, and we don't need him escaping on us-"

  "Not that I would, if you had bothered to listen to me-"

  Coran glared down at Lotor, and continued to speak. "Like I said, it shouldn't be too long. Just keep watch."

  Lance groaned, "Why did we decide on a cell  _this far down_ if you were gonna make me stay here? I don't even think the comms have a good enough signal-!"

  Coran smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine. I'll be back down to get you once I've secured this area." The blue paladin sighed, "Alright, alright."

  "There's a good lad! Be back in a tick!" And with that, Coran was making his way back up to the main part of the castle, leaving Lance to keep watch over their prisoner, Prince Lotor.


	4. Chapter 4

  Lance sighed and leaned against the wall opposite of Lotor's holding cell, letting himself slide down until he was sat on the floor, criss-cross. Lotor payed him no mind in that moment, seeming to be lost in thought, so Lance took the opportunity of his distraction to take in the features of the Prince.

  He was purple, but not in a traditional Galra way- instead of being covered in fur, Lotor had purple skin, and red marks on his face, similar to the druid, Haggar, but going down across his yellow eyes. He had very long, flowing white hair, that looked so silky, Lance almost had the urge to reach out to touch it, run his fingers through it just to _feel_ it. He shook the thought away, and let his eyes wonder to his most prominent feature, what really caught Lance's attention- his ears, which were Altean.

  Lance frowned and leaned forward slightly, propping an elbow on his knee, and his head rest in the palm of his hand. "You're part Altean." He stated, causing Lotor to jump slightly from where he sat. He looked over at Lance. "Pardon?"

  "You're part Altean." Lance repeated, tapping his own ear with his free hand to emphasize what he was referring to. Lotor looked confused for a second, then laughed. "Oh. Yes, good observation, young Paladin. I am in fact part Altean, and part Galra." Lance nodded to himself and sat back against the wall once more, keeping his eyes on Lotor, who now had his attention on Lance. "So, you said you were here on orders?"

  Lotor nodded and moved himself closer to the barrier that kept him in the cell. "Yes, Haggar summoned me, not long after my father's 'defeat'. Like I said before, I'm  _supposed_ _to_ defeat Voltron and bring the Lions to Haggar, but I couldn't care any less of my orders."

  "Then why-?"

  Lotor swiftly pushed his hair back behind his ear and straightened his posture. "I took the orders as an opportunity to possibly repair the damage I caused to Allura, and, er,  _team up_ , I suppose you could say, with you all, the Paladin's of Voltron. I have no interest in doing anything that would benefit my father and his universal domination in the slightest."

  "You say that as if he's still alive?"

  "Oh, he is. The bastard- I could only resent you all for not finishing him off. Sadly, last I saw of him before finding my way here, the druids were doing some work on him." Lotor sighed and Lance cocked his head to the side. "You  _really_ don't like Zarkon either."

  "Oh, of course not. I hate him probably more that anyone else in the universe, including those who have had to sadly suffer under his rule." Lotor frowned. Lance mimicked the frown. "I know he's a bad guy, I mean he's tried to have us killed a bunch of times, but he's your  _dad_ , and you hate him more than us- that's pretty messed up. What exactly-?" The Prince shook his head. "Can I just say, he ruined my life, and leave it at that? It's not anything I'd like to reminisce about." Lance nodded solemnly and looked away, down at his hands. "What about-"

  "Allura and I? I had figured you'd ask eventually." A ghost of a smile passed across the Prince's lips. "It isn't a pleasant story, either, and may completely turn you against me, to where you probably won't stop Allura from using my own helmet to kill me- Thank you for that, by the way." He smiled at Lance when the paladin looked back towards him, causing warmth to rise up in Lance's cheeks, and he immediately looked away again, mumbling, "Don't take it so personal, I'm just not a 'kill first ask later" kind of guy, cause then we'd get no answers." Lotor chuckled, "Of course. Well, if you'd like to know the regrettable past of your Princess and I, you best hope Coran takes a long time getting back, it's quite a long story."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Further up in the castle, in the hangars, Pidge, Keith, Hunk, and Allura were thoroughly searching Prince Lotor's ship for anything suspicious in the slightest.

  Pidge sat distracted at the controls, heavily studying the equipment. "This is way different than Altean tech- you think when we're done searching, I could take the time to figure out how this all works?"

  Hunk looked back at her from where he stood, looking through storage compartments. "Wouldn't you need to be Galra to interact with any of it?" Pidge shrugged. "Keith could help me." Hunk smiled, "Oh, that's right! Maybe while he's helping, you'll get to hear some of his jokes. I swear, Galra Keith is so much funnier than regular Keith." Pidge rolled her eyes. "That doesn't even make sense, Hunk. What you're saying just implies that Keith was funny before. He's probably just funnier now because he lost a layer of emo."

  Hunk snorted, "A layer of emo?" Pidge nodded, most of her focus still on the controls. "Yeah, you know, the whole 'not having an identity/ not knowing his true self/ still trying to find himself' emo layer. Now that he knows that part of himself, he's less emo- or something." Hunk chuckled and shook his head, "Yeah I guess..."

  Towards the back of the ship, Keith and Allura inspected every place they could, trying to find, well,  _something_. "I bet Pidge and Hunk are having better luck than us," Keith mumbled, looking in the small compartments. "There's hardly anything back here that isn't actually part of the ship."

  "We have to be sure," Allura argued, inspecting wall panels and tech embedded in the wall. "Everything on here is under suspicion. I don't trust a word from  _him_." She hadn't even said Lotor's name, yet still spat the word 'him' with just as much disgust. "If you don't mind me asking, Princess," Keith closed the small compartment after looking through it for the hundredth time, "What happened between you and Lotor that has you so, well, upset?"

  Allura huffed a breath of aggravation before turning to face Keith. "It isn't pleasant to think about, or speak of, but I suppose you all must know sooner or later. Though, I'd rather only have to tell you all once." Keith nodded. "Understood. Should we head back to the control room? I really don't think we'll find anything in here, if we haven't yet already." Allura sighed, "I suppose, there isn't any immediate threat to us to be found here. You get Pidge and Hunk, I'll go get Coran and Lance, and we'll all meet back in the main room." With that, Allura exited the ship.


	5. Chapter 5

   Lance looked towards the dark hallway where Coran had disappeared only moments ago, then back to Lotor. "I think we'll have plenty of time."

   Lotor smiled grimly and sat up straighter. "Very well, Paladin. If you must know, this is the story of Allura and I's past."

 

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  Allura stood at the head of the sofas in the lounge area, waiting patiently as the paladins filed in, taking seats. She frowned and looked around to the other entrances. "Where's Lance?" It was then that Coran stepped in.

  "Oh, Allura, I have some tests to run on the security in the prison cells, to make sure they won't fail on us at any given time, I've left Lance to keep an eye on Prince Lotor until I'm certain there will be no system failure." Allura's frown deepened slightly. "Well, I was hoping to have him here with the others, to avoid having to tell this twice or more, but, I suppose it's better he stay guard down there for now." She sighed. "I can tell him later."

  Coran nodded, a slight worry visible in his features, "Will you be okay to tell them this, Allura? You don't have to-"

   "No, they have a right to know. If he's to be in the castle, it's bound to come up, and I'd rather tell about it while I'm level-headed."

  Coran smiled, "I'm only a holler away." Allura nodded as Coran exited, and she turned her attention to the paladins.

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    _Allura watched the city below her from the top of the castle steps. The breeze was blowing gently through her hair. It was peaceful._

_A shadow engulfed her, and she looked up, only to see Prince Lotor. She frowned and looked away, “What do you want?” She felt an arm snake around her shoulders and she tensed up. “You, of course,” the Prince spoke, leaning down enough to lay a soft kiss on her cheek._

_Allura turned her body to the side, shrugging his arm off. He frowned and moved to stand in front of her, but she turned away again._

_“Allura, darling, what's wrong?”_

_She kept her voice low, as she spoke, “I saw you, earlier, down in the prison. I saw you and some of your father's men-”_

_“Allura, that's my job-”_

_“Your_ job _is to protect. Not torture.”_

_Lotor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I, we needed information. He was fighting back- They're my friends Allura, I had to help.”_

_Allura shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I can't stand to know that you would hurt a fellow Altean like that, Lotor.” He reached out and pulled her into an embrace, stroking her hair. “I promise you won't ever have to witness something like that again, and I'm sorry.”_

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_Only a few months had passed, the alliance between The Galra and Altea was growing weaker. For Altea, this was trouble. Allura knew this, but had chosen at the time to ignore it, do as her father had said and leave it to him and the counsel._

_She lay in her bed, reading, waiting for Lotor to finish the meeting. It had been hours already, and she was growing impatient waiting, therefore opted to go to him instead._

_As she exited her room, she passed by the entrance hall, and heard shouting from outside._

_Curiosity struck and she rushed outside to see what the commotion was. At the foot of the castle's steps, a small group of Galra soldiers stood around a young Altean, shoving and kicking him to the ground whilst laughing._

_"Stop! Stop it!!” Allura shouted, running down the steps as fast as she could._

_She pushed her way through the soldiers until she reached the Altean man, who lay in a heap on the ground, bruised and bleeding._

_“What is wrong with you all?! What crime has he committed for this sort of punishment?!”_

_Allura knelt to the ground, pulling the Altean to her lap and checking his injuries, illegible mumbling coming from the soldiers. She glared up at each of them in turn, until her eyes landed on one, who was turned away, trying to keep their identity hidden as best they could from her, But it was no use, she knew._

_“Lotor-?” they turned finally to face her, and her fears were proven then._

_Without another word, she stood, holding the young Altean man upright. The Galra men parted for her as she led the injured man to the castle. As she walked away, she could hear mumbling behind her, but paid no mind._

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_Another month and a half, and Lotor was making several attempts to talk to Allura, but she was having none of it. Every chance he took to talk to her she ignored or entirely avoided him._

_Until one evening, she was walking through the city square, getting some fresh air- a change from the castle where she heard constant arguing between the Altean and Galra counsel men, her father and Zarkon, their booming voices echoing, all of the tension._

_As she walked, however, she had the creeping feeling that she was being followed, yet in was a crowded area, so there was no telling, with so many people walking every which way._

_Suddenly, she was grabbed by the arm, and before she could shout, a hand went over her mouth and she was pulled out of the crowd, into an alleyway-_ how cliche.

_The person behind her was pressed close, grip tight on her arm and hand unmoving over her mouth. Their face was right next to hers, lips to her ear, voice low and harsh._

_“Do not scream. The consequences will not be good for either of us.” Allura reached up with her free hand and tugged the hand from over her mouth, turning in the strong grip to come nearly nose-to-nose with Lotor, who had a harsh grin on his face._

_“Hello, my princess.”_

_Allura tugged her arm to release Lotor’s grip on her, but he held tight. “I am not_ your _princess. You have the nerve-!”_

_“Shh, shh.” He hushed her, shaking his head. “I tried to speak with you sooner, but you’ve been avoiding me.” Allura glared up at him. “Do you blame me? I mean, really!”_

_He sighed and released his grip on her arm, only to move his hand up to her shoulder, then back down to take both her hands in his own. “If you would give me only a tick of your time, and let me explain-”_

_Allura stepped back, trying still to release herself from his grasp, but he held strong. “I don’t want to hear a word from you! It would have been different if that had been the_ only _case of an innocent person coming up brutally beat, but Lotor, it’s happening_ more _!! I don’t know what’s going on entirely, but what I do know is that it’s you and those others, and I want nothing to do with it!!”_

_She had stopped trying to pull away, not just from the physical exhaustion, but the emotional weight she was carrying up until this point weighing down on he. Lotor took her moment of weakness as an advantage and pulled her close, one arm snaking around her waist, his free hand coming up to caress her cheek, despite how she recoiled from the touch._

_He kissed the top of her head. “I hate that I’ve upset you like this, please, give me just one more chance, my love.” He spoke low, almost a whisper. Allura was shaking her head, but he tilted her head up and brought her into a kiss, unwillingly on her part._

_Allura pushed him back, “Lotor, no, I can’t, I won’t-!” But he pulled her back, speaking again as he kissed down her neck, “I promise I won’t hurt you any more, please, love, darling, my princess,” Allura balled her hands into fists against his chest, mumbling, “No, no, you had your chance, Lotor,”_

_There were tears forming in her eyes, she could feel the love she had felt for him from the start tugging at her heart, as the reminder in the back of her mind, of what he had done, pulled the other way, an emotional battle within herself as Lotor kissed back up her neck and whispering sweet nothings and empty promises to her still._

_She tried pushing him away, although it was half hearted. She hadn’t realized how much she was really missing him in the time that she was avoiding him._

_Almost all at once, she finally caved into him, letting herself fall against his chest with a sob, whispering over and over again, “_ I missed you, _” As she silently cried, Lotor held her close._

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_Within the next year, all of Lotor’s operations under the orders of his father, as well as a few others in command under Zarkon, were done discreetly enough that Allura would have never suspected a thing, although in within that time, she had also reached the age in which her father felt it appropriate to not hide as much from her any more._

_She attended most things as her father did, more as a shadow, but silently learning, yet still, Zarkon’s plan for the Galra Empire had become quiet, before there was anything to even suspect. Arguments still broke out, just as bad as Allura remembers, hearing them as an outsider to the conversations._

_She never let this discourse cloud her judgement of any others, and managed to keep an open mind still, something her father praised her on, often saying how she would one day make for a great leader._

_During this time of silent uprise, her meetings with Lotor were painfully brief. He had become busier, speaking of having many things to do for the benefit of the joint empires. He always spoke fast and kept conversation in general to a minimum, hardly letting her speak as well._

_It seemed minor, but it was almost as if her words weren’t worth his time, and to Lotor, they weren’t._

_In his mind, his thoughts, morals and judgement were being clouded by those around him. His father and his men, his friends and cronies that mindlessly did his bidding. Allura had become nothing but a toy, of sorts._

_He of course never said so upfront to her, or portrayed enough for her to figure it out herself._

_He kept their meetings short, with so little free time on his hands already, feeding her lies about fake orders he received that would keep her thinking he was doing good things, his words laced with pet names and sweet nothings whispered to her between kisses that kept her from continuing conversation._

_He would never let her know of the women and fortune and whatever else he was being gifted in as reward for his heinous deeds._

_She wouldn’t know that she had become almost like an object to him, that he rewarded himself with whenever he felt like. She would never know that he was breaking every promise he had whispered to her in the dark of the night when it was just the two of them._

_There was no need for her to know, and Lotor was going to drag this out for as long as he could._

_This went on for a while, until there was a small slip up._

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_The slip up was on the Galra part, it had been let out somehow, plans, plans to use Voltron for what Zarkon claimed to be good for the empires as well as the rest of the universe, but what Altea quickly recognized as universal domination._

_From that point, it was the start of a war, the alliance between Altea and the Galra Empire was severed._

_For Allura, it was worse than she could have imagined. The first person she turned to in her blind emotional state was Lotor._

_Although it was forbidden to have interaction with the Galra after the information leak on Zarkon’s plan, Allura managed to get a one man ship out of the castle without raising suspicion or alarms, and snuck onto a Galra ship she knew for sure Lotor would be on._

_It had been almost a month without seeing him, and they were hardly able to keep contact, but she knew from the past where to find him. She had shifted her form upon entering the ship to resemble Galra, and made her way to the Prince’s room._

_She couldn’t hear anything from inside, so she knocked on the door, and keeping her voice low, spoke, “Lotor? Lotor it’s me, Allura,” There was no response, so she knocked again, “Lotor, I- I’m coming in-!”_

_As the door slid open and Allura stepped in, she began to wish that she had stayed back on Altea, and only hoped for Lotor to come to her instead._

_In his room, Lotor lay in his grand bed, multiple Galra women sat and lay on either side. They all were laughing, talking, the women touching Lotor wherever they could reach, with Lotor soaking up all the attention, giving the women meaningless praise._

_If not had been struck numb in shock, Allura may had, in that moment, felt her heart shatter. She may have been able to say something, anything, but she just stood there._

_She stood there until one of the Galra women glanced to her and gave her a sour look, leaning down to where her mouth was level with the Prince’s ear, whispering to him about the odd girl standing at his door._

_It was then that Lotor noticed her. He didn’t shoot up out of the bed, trying to deny the women he literally had all over him. He didn’t try to comfort her, or try to offer an explanation. He didn’t apologize for breaking her heart beyond repair._

_No. Instead, he smiled. He sat up and gently moved his way off the bed. With arms wide open, he said with humor, “Welcome, Princess. How grand of you to join us.” Behind him, the women collectively giggled._

_Heat was rising up in Allura’s face, tears building up behind her eyes. She didn’t speak. She couldn't._

_Lotor chuckled and approached her, hands comfortably resting on her hips. “Why, are you surprised? Did I forget to send out your invite?” Again, giggling._

_Allura’s throat was burning, she couldn’t make herself move, nor could she trust her voice. Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes. “I-” she choked out, fighting back a sob._

_“Tsk, tsk,” Lotor shook his head, moving a hand up to caress her cheek and wipe away a tear that had fallen. “Oh, princess, it hadn’t occurred to me that this would come as such a shock to you, really.”_

_Allura remained quiet, all her power going into holding back from a breakdown. Lotor continued, “I honestly thought you were much more intelligent my dear. Although, it really worked out so much better for me, that you remained painfully oblivious to the fact that I was being paid for my nasty deeds not only in riches, and promotions, and empire, but women, too! Who would have thought my father could be_ so _generous.”_

_Allura let out a strangled gasp, reaching to push Lotor away, “You-”_

_"Thanks to your sweet, sweet obliviousness, I got all the use out of you that I could have hoped for.” He grinned maliciously down at her, grabbing her face hard with the hand that had just been caressing her._

_"Not the way one would think-” He leaned down, lips centimeters from her own. “I had no need for information, that I could get on my own.” He was talking low, nearly at a whisper, “But you were quite useful for the more,_ pleasurable _, things that I desired.”_

_Allura choked back a sob and Lotor released her to fall to her knees at his feet. “It was fun while it lasted, darling, but as you can see, I have much more a variety.”_

_The Princess hugged herself, tears flowing and head pounding as she cried. Lotor knelt to her level and stroked her hair, his hand stopping at the back of her head to grab a handful of her hair to yank her head back so he could look her in the eyes._

_Still she cried, unable to stop herself now; heat in her face and her throat burning, head pounding and every sob bringing up ugly sounds. She looked up at him, vision blurry from the tears, and he sneered at her._

_“You look awful, love, really. I don’t feel as bad about this, looking at you now.” Hideous laughter erupted behind Lotor from the women still laid up on his bed._

_With that, he dropped her to lay in a broken heap on his floor, and returned to his bed. “Feel free to leave, whenever. I’ll alert the guards to let you leave unharmed, to go crawling back to daddy. That is, if you leave peacefully and don’t try to harm me. That would end badly for you- an emotionally unstable little Altean girl in a Galra ship.”_

_Allura, with shaking arms and weak legs, pushed herself up and looked to Lotor, who had since turned his attention back to the whores. “Lotor,” her voice was hoarse from crying, and broke at the end of his name. He paid her no mind, as if she were no longer there._

_She covered her mouth to hold back any more crying that would come up, and left his room. She had considered briefly to try approaching him, to walk to his bed and make him pay attention, but she knew herself, and that she was too emotionally unstable to do anything else but leave, carrying with her the broken pieces of her heart._

  
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	6. Chapter 6

  With a shaking voice, Allura brought her story to an end. Hunk was the first to stand, approaching her with open arms and a look of empathy. Without hesitation, Allura stepped close and allowed herself to be embraced. Pidge and Keith stood as well, and joined the hug, all three paladins in a sort of shock, not really knowing what to say, but providing comfort nonetheless.

  Allura sniffed and broke the group embrace first, stepping back and wiping her eyes. "I do hope, that this information does not change how you view me- I was naive and younger then. Over the few years after that, not long before Altea was destroyed, is when I pushed that past away, and strengthened myself. I became the Princess that I am now, and-"

  Pidge cut her off, "You're still the kick-ass Princess that we all know. Nothing changes that." She gave the Princess a gentle smile, that was returned. "Thank you all, for listening. I apologize for how I had acted earlier-"

  "Oh, no way, that's totally validated." Hunk reassured her. "I almost wish Lance hadn't stopped you," he laughed.

  Allura giggled, smiling easier now. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I must go see Coran."

  "Go ahead, Princess," Keith nodded to her, and she left the three with their own festering thoughts.

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  Lotor's voice had gotten low, nearing the end of his story, with Lance listening intently yet showing no immediate reactions to the information.

  “I- After she left, I never saw her again. At the time, I didn't even care in the slightest. I had so much more, so many material objects, people I treated as objects, it wasn't until after Altea was finally, completely destroyed, we had rejoiced, and then- and then everything was taken from me almost instantly- My father was becoming power hungry, hunting for the Lions of Voltron, and I was seemingly a threat to his success." He sighed, rubbing his temples, then continued.

  “For almost a thousand years I remained in his shadow, at the very bottom, unable to make anything of myself. For the longest time, it was just my thoughts I had with me.

  I slowly began to realize every mistake I had made in the past, and how they all linked to me being a little puppet in my father's play, tugged whichever way he wanted, obeying every order, I felt so much unimaginable guilt." Lance noticed that Lotor's voice was shaking. He waited, not saying anything.

  Lotor cleared his throat, continuing, "The one thing I kept reflecting back on, was Allura. Allura who had truly loved me, for nothing else but me and who I was, and I know at the start, I had loved her just as much. Yet, as my mind was plagued by my father's poison, I forgot all my good morals and values, I forgot how much I had treasured her. Instead, I did things behind her back, that I knew she would see as unforgiving, but it fueled me. It fed a fire inside, I saw her as a game, a- a toy, so wonderfully oblivious, thinking I was still all she could ever want in a lover and a friend.

  I spent ten thousand years with this guilt, thinking that she had died in the fires of Zarkon's fleets so long ago, and that I would never be able to repair what I had broken," Lotor looked up at Lance, holding his cold stare. "When I was summoned at Zarkon's defeat, I couldn't have cared less, but went along anyways, with hopes that she was really alive, and helping Voltron to defend the universe."

  Lotor finally looked away once again, "I know that I will never, not even in another ten thousand years, have Allura like I once did before. I still love her so, but not even I would ever be able to forgive myself for what I did, so I would never expect, or even be foolish enough to hope for her to forgive me either, not enough to be like we were so long ago."

  After some long moments of silence, Lance spoke voice low, "You are seriously one _fucked up_ dude." Lotor flinched at the harsh language. "If I had been in your place, I would have never dared to show my face in front of the Princess." Lotor hung his head low.

  "I come here to apologize, and hope to be an ally. I did not come with very high hopes. I spent so many thousands of years reflecting on my horrid actions, I know where I kneel." As he spoke, he kept his head bowed and voice low.

  Lance stood. "I almost wish I didn't stop her, now. I can't even sympathize with you at this point," he was keeping his icy stare on Lotor's hunched over figure. "You better hope she feels like listening to you like I did, or else I don't see anything going well for you."

  Lotor nodded solemnly at Lance's words. “I am- I’m sorry to know that this has changed your view of me, but I don’t blame you-”

  "Lance!” Coming back down the hallway was Coran, “Thank you for staying down here, that was quite a bit longer than I originally anticipated." Lance shrugged indifferently. "It's okay, it hardly felt that long."

  Coran smiled, "Come, then. The security systems are all good to go, so you can come back up, now."

  "Gladly," Lance smiled, and he and Coran made their way to the main Castle, leaving Lotor to himself.

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  The Paladins, along with Allura and Coran, had gathered back together in the dining room for what was to be breakfast. It was the same as it had been for the past few meals- the green food goo.

  Prior to this, Lance had been informed of what the other Paladins had heard from Allura, and he confirmed that he was told the same from Lotor.

  They sat in silence for a while, before Lance spoke up, “Do we have surveillance from the prison cells, like with sound and everything?” He looked towards Coran, who looked up from his food goo. “Oh, I would think we should- why do you ask?”

   Lance shrugged, “I was just thinking, because, the way Lotor told his part- It was just, I don’t know. Like, he really sounded genuinely guilty and stuff-”

   “If you think that for a _second_ that I would consider anything he has to say, you are very, very wrong.” Allura had tightened her grip on her spoon, and kept her head bowed, looking down at her plate.

   “But Princess-”

   “ _No, Lance!”_ Allura stood and slammed her hand down on the table, fire in her eyes. “You must be mad, or he must have told you another story, because he _had_ his chance!”

   “It’s been ten thousand years, Princess! He thought you were dead for ten thousand years, and had to let that guilt build up because he broke your heart, then let you just die!”

   “I don’t want to hear anymore-”

   “Do you really think he would bother to show his face to you after fucking up so badly? Do you think he would let himself be captured and held prisoner here?? I know what he did to you, I know you can’t bring yourself to forgive him for that, but you could _listen_ to him-”

   “I _said_ I _don’t want_ to _hear_ anymore! _Lance_!” Allura had raised her voice to where she was shouting, causing Lance to flinch, and he stood down.

   “You are in no place to tell me anything. You may know the story, but you _don’t know_.”

  Lance looked down in defeat. “I’m sorry, Princess, you’re right. I just thought-” Allura held up her hand, sighing, “No, I’m sorry for shouting- I understand you’re trying to resolve this, but it’s much deeper than that. I- I appreciate it, though.”

  She sat back down, and silent tension filled the room, no one daring to speak up after the argument between the two.

   They all ate in silence for another few minutes, before Pidge cleared her throat, “If it won’t start anything, I just want to say I’m kinda with Lance on this-”

   “What?” Allura, with everyone else, looked up at Pidge. She looked around at everyone, looking slightly uneasy. “I’m not saying it for arguments sake, but logically it wouldn’t make sense for you to not listen to anything he has to say at all. If we just keep him locked up and nothing else, we’ll get nowhere.”

   Hunk spoke up, frowning slightly, “And, it might not do much good for any of us to play messenger between you two either- that’ll just cause communication errors. I have to agree with Lance, too, even with how much I hate Lotor based off what I know, we have to work with him for information,”

  Allura frowned and between the two, then to Lance- who looked just as surprised to have them agree with him, then finally to Keith, who hadn’t spoken yet. “Do you all really think that-?”

   Keith avoided her gaze, but finally spoke up, “I agree, too. It would be for the best, to make any progress,”

  Allura sighed and put her head in her hands, “I know, I know it’s for the best that I listen to him, I just- I need time. He had ten thousand years to deal with his end of this, I hardly had ten years- Please understand-”

   They all nodded, and Hunk rubbed the back of his neck, “We don’t mean to be trying to pressure you into it, Allura, I don’t think anyone would want to have to go through what you did, then have to talk to the person who caused it all,”

   Lance nodded, “Take all the time you need. In the meantime, we can go on as usual- We have more important things to worry about-”

   “Like Shiro,” Keith mumbled, and silence fell once again. Eventually, Allura stood once again, “I need to go clear my thoughts,” she said, and Coran stood as well, “Should I-?” She shook her head.

   “No, I’ll be fine. I’m just going to take a walk around the castle.” She smiled faintly, then left the room.

   Lance groaned and sunk low in his seat. “I really screwed up, didn’t I? I’m just trying to help,” Coran sighed and shook his head, “No, Lance, you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s just a lot more stress on an already stressful situation. Don’t worry about it too much.”

   Keith stood, walking to the door. “Where are you going?” Hunk asked.

   “Um, the training deck.” and with that he was gone, walking down the hallway.

   Lance huffed, “That’s like, the only thing he does,” he mumbled. Pidge shrugged. “It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to train, you know.”

   “But he does it _all_ the time!” Lance argued.

   “And how much do you train?" Pidge questioned. Lance stayed quiet for a second. “Enough.” he mumbled, averting his eyes.

   Pidge snorted and stood up, “Sure, whatever. I’m gonna go take another look at Lotor’s ship-”

   “Didn’t you say you needed Keith’s help with that?” Hunk asked, looking over at her. “Oh! Right- Well, I’ll just mess with all the stuff that _isn’t_ Galra tech. I’ll get Keith to help me out when he isn’t busy.”

   Lance stood as well, stretching his hands over his head, “Well, I think I might actually go do some training too, since I don’t have any tech to mess with-”

   “You mean you’re gonna go annoy Keith,” Hunk laughed.

   Lance snorted, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Hunk- I’m just gonna go touch up on my skills, can’t be the team sharp shooter if I’m no good at it!”

   Hunk laughed and shook his head, “Whatever, man.” He looked at Coran, “Hey, Coran, are there any planets nearby that we can make a landing on and possibly pick up some fresh ingredients?”

   Coran stroked his mustache, thinking, “Well, we can go take a look!” Hunk nodded and stood, and he and Coran left to go back to the main control room.

   “Later, Lance.” Pidge walked to the doors, “Have fun with ‘training’,” She laughed.

   Lance crossed his arms, “I will, because that’s what I’m gonna be doing!”

   “Whatever,” They both walked out the doors, and immediately parting ways; Pidge to the hanger that held Prince Lotor’s ship, and Lance to the training deck.


	7. Chapter 7

  Lance glanced about his surroundings as he walked past the training deck. There was no way he was going to just sit around when they had a perfect source of information right below them. Everyone else was going about as normal- but Lance wanted to get answers, and he didn't want to wait for Allura to do so.

  He started on the long trek down into the prisoner holding cells, his footsteps echoing throughout the lower levels of the ship.

  After seemingly walking for ages, Lance slow approached Lotor's holding cell. He looked just as he did when Lance left- sitting, leant up against the wall, his head still hung low with his hair hiding his face.

  The only thing off was how shallow his breathing had become- and Lance realized that the Prince had fallen asleep. Lance frowned and stepped closer towards the barrier that kept Lotor in, and Lance out.

  He hesitantly tapped the barrier with the toe of his boot, causing it to shift slightly with a static-like sound. “Hey,” He spoke up. Lotor made no movement to show he had heard Lance. “Hey-!” Lance said louder, kicking the barrier with a little more force.

  Lotor jerked awake, frantically whipping his head around, looking for what woke him up. His eyes finally rested on Lance, and he relaxed, letting out a deep sigh and leaning his head back against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment.

  He let out a low chuckle, glancing back up at the paladin. “That was quite a start you gave me-”

  Lance cut him off. “I didn't come here for small talk, Lotor. I want answers.” Lotor gave him a quizzical look, “To what questions?” Lance sat as close as he could to the cell, setting his bayard beside him.

  “What were your orders?” Lotor sighed, looking Lance in the eyes. “My orders, precisely, were to gather some men, follow the coordinates given to me, and take down Voltron, capturing the lions and _optionally_ the paladins as well, to bring back to my father and Haggar.”

  Lance narrowed his eyes. “That sounds too simple.” Lotor rolled his eyes, “Well, yes, but I was to make a more intricate and detailed plan once I had my army. I opted to just follow the coordinates on my own-”

  “How did you not get caught? Wasn't it obvious that you weren't leaving with an entire army?”

  Lotor smiled slyly, “Have you not ever snuck out of your own home?” Lance thought back to the many times that he had snuck out the window of his bedroom, to go on ‘adventures’ with Hunk and his few other friends, he remembered the times he and Hunk would sneak out of their room at the Garrison, and them and Pidge would go off doing who-knows-what.

  A knot formed in the pit of his stomach, homesickness welled up inside him as the memories flooded his thoughts. All he could do was nod, bot trusting his voice at the moment.

  Lotor nodded as well. “Ah, so you see, it was pretty simple - I just snuck out. No one noticed. Of course, I could only imagine Simone will _eventually_ notice I've gone without anyone else, but that isn't my concern right now.”

  Lance composed himself, sitting upright. “What's your main concern, then?” Lotor smiled, seemingly giddy, “I've said before, and I'll say it again, as many times as I need to, but I want nothing to do with helping my father. Quite the opposite, really. I want to help _Voltron_. Anything and everything that will go against him, that's my focus.” Lance thought for a moment. “That's pretty sound logic, though I can't promise that the Princess will trust you anytime soon. I wouldn't either, if I were her.” Lotor nodded solemnly. "Yes, I understand.”

  Lance stood, brushing himself off. “Well, I have all the info I wanted. I should head back up, before the others freak out-”

  “Wait,” Lotor interrupted, “Would you mind coming back here? I truly don't believe I'll be out of here any time soon, and it would be nice to have company.” He looked up, holding Lance's gaze. Lance's face warmed slightly and he turned away, clearing his throat. “Um, yeah, but for more questioning and stuff, since you're a prisoner and all.” Lotor smiled.

  “I have to go.” With that, Lance took off back down the long hallway at a fast pace, his steps echoing loudly as he went.

\----------------------------------------------------------

 

  Pidge sat at the controls of Lotor's ship, staring down at the foreign symbols and controls, afraid to press the wrong thing unknowingly. She sighed and sat back, thinking. “Maybe I should just go get Keith now,” She mumbled to herself.

  Sighing again, she pushed herself up out of the seat and made her way off the ship, then towards the training deck.

  As she approached the doors, she ran smack into someone- or, rather, they ran right into her, knocking them both down.

  “Oomf-” She grunted, rolling over to her side and pushing herself up to a sitting position, then glaring over at whomever had ran into her. To her surprise, it was Lance.

  “I thought you were gonna go to the training deck to annoy Keith-?” Pidge questioned as Lance sat up. He looked at her, surprised.

  “I was- I mean, I did-”

  “You just ran from way down the hall? Not the training deck-”

  “Um,” Lance looked panicked. Pidge pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose and looked at the older boy quizzically. “Where were you coming from??”

  Lance stayed quiet for only a moment longer, then let out an exasperated sigh.

  “I went to talk to- er, question Lotor. I don't want to wait for Allura, and, I get she needs time to get over it and come to terms with it and whatever, but we need answers now, and-” Pidge cut him off.

  “So, what information did you get?”

  The expression on Lance's face was one of instant relief, realizing that Pidge just wanted to know what he knew.

  “Well, he really, really hates his dad- So much that he actually seems like he really wants to help us, like he isn't lying.”

  Pidge nodded as she listened to the information Lance passed from Lotor to her. “I already said it before, but it seems pretty validated. And once I can get Keith to help me-”

  “Whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute. Why do you need Keith to help you? With what??”

  Pidge rolled her eyes, “He's part Galra. He can help me interact with the Prince’s ship.” Lance huffed and stood up, holding out his hand which she took, helping her to stand as well. “You know, now that I’m thinking about it, that was kinda impulsive for you to go see Prince Lotor- I would expect something like that more from Keith,” Pidge thought out loud.

  Lance’s face heated up and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets, “Yeah right- I wasn’t being impulsive. It was a well thought out move-!” Pidge snorted.

  “Uh-huh-” The two were then interrupted by the doors to the training deck sliding open, and Keith stopping in his tracks, looking between the two. He gave them both a confused look, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  “Hey, guys. What’s going on?” Pidge glanced briefly at Lance, whom had turned his attention to a particularly interesting spot on the wall adjacent to them. She looked back up at Keith, full attention on him. “Can you help me with some stuff on Lotor’s ship? I can do most of the work, but it’s Galra tech, so,”

  She  trailed off, looking warily at Keith, waiting for a response. He shrugged, sheathing his knife. “Sure. I’m done with everything I had planned-” Lance snorted at his response, quickly trying to disguise it as a cough. Keith glared towards him, yet decided to say nothing. Pidge sighed to herself.

  “C’mon, then.” She began walking, Keith close behind and Lance trailing slightly farther back, walking to Prince Lotor’s ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is much shorter, but I've had a lot going on, so I'm mostly just trying to update this somewhat regularly~


	8. Chapter 8

 Once reaching Lotor’s ship, Pidge turned her attention to Keith. “I’ve figured out what most of this stuff does, but it’s also mostly touch-sensitive, so that’s why I needed you here.”

 Keith nodded shortly and followed her onto the ship, Lance close behind. Pidge sat at the controls and Keith stood to her left, looking down to where she directed his attention and listening to her rambling intently.

 Lance strolled over to Pidge’s right side, trying to listen and understand as she spoke what sounded like utter nonsense to him.

 He went unacknowledged for a few minuets, Keith tapping away, and Pidge scribbling down notes as he did so. Lance tried to focus on the control panel, gears in his brain turning as he tried to process everything he was seeing, but the alien symbols had him at a loss, leaving him of no help to his friends.

 Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, Lance leaned back against the wall- or at least, where he thought a wall was. Instead, he was met with empty space, and proceeded to fall back.

 In a panic, the blue paladin threw his hand out to grab hold of something, and ended up catching himself on the control panel by mistake.

 Everything had happened so fast that he hadn’t even been able to fully process it until Pidge was saying his name.

 “Lance-!” Her and Keith pulled Lance to his feet, and he turned his gaze down to the green paladin.

 “I-I’m sorry, Pidge, I didn’t mean to-”

 “I don’t even know what you did,” Pidge interrupted him, “But you managed to mess up the controls to where I can’t even figure out how to  _ begin  _ to understand-” She took a deep breath.

 “How did you even fall?? You were literally just standing there, Lance.”

 “I thought there was a wall behind me, I was just trying to lean back-”

 As he spoke, he looked to Keith, who kept his arms crossed and expression a stony glare.

 “Listen, Lance, I really don’t even need you in here with us right now, I just need Keith for this. So, go bother The Princess or Coran, or find Hunk. I have to fix this…”

 Pidge trailed off, sitting back at the control and waving a hand towards him, signaling for him to go away. Keith followed her movements and turned his attention back to the panel as well.

 Lance wanted to speak up again, apologize more, but already he was forgotten, both Keith and Pidge’s attention fully on the symbols and controls once more.

 Sighing, he made his way off the small vessel, into the hangar, and back into the main halls of the castle ship.

\------------------------------------------------------

 Lance didn’t immediately try to find Hunk, or Coran, or Allura. Instead, he wandered around on his own, exploring halls and rooms he hadn’t had the time or interest to explore before.

 Despite trying to forget the events that had occurred not even ten minutes ago, Pidge’s words kept echoing in his mind,  _ I really don’t even need you in here with us,  _ he frowned to himself. She was pretty mad with him,  _ I just need Keith for this. _

 He sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair,  _ it was reasonable for her to have been so angry, he messed up, and was useless in there anyways.  _

 He found his way to his room, and as the doors slid open, another thought passed through,  _ go bother The Princess or Coran, or find Hunk. _

 He shouldn’t be letting her words get to him, she was just worked up at the time, she didn’t mean any harm-  _ but is that all he is? A bother? _

 Lance groaned and plopped down onto his bed, rolling onto his side and facing the wall. He felt so emotionally drained right now. He could definitely go for some beauty sleep. Just a nap.

 As his eyes slid shut, he let his mind free, and more thoughts swarmed his drowsy head, and a last thought shone prominently through the rest.

_ Of course he’s just a bother- it’s all he’s good at... _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cries* I'm so sorry I'm leaving you guys with such a short chapter after going so long without updating but I promise I'll have longer chapters for y'all soon :-;


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